by Whitney McKim

The is the second of a three part series! Part 1 is a review of the K9 Bike Jogger, a useful little, universal bicycle accessory to make biking with your pooch safe and easy. Part 2 is a review of RuffWear’s Bark ‘n Boots Grip Trex and their Bark ‘n Boot Liners. This final installment is Magnolia’s review of the Urban Trail Harness by Alpine Outfitters.

This is the final installment of Biking with your Pooch. After reading this fantastic review by Magnolia, you should be all ready to take your pooch out for a ride! Just don’t forget the water!!!

I can’t remember exactly how we found Alpine Outfitters, but it was a short time after we started biking several years ago. Magnolia was a little miffed about how her harness would rub when she was running next to the bike. No matter what we did to adjust the sizing, we just couldn’t keep the harness from sliding around, back and forth across Maggie’s back. There’s nothing worse than having your harness chafe your glossy coat as you’re running next to a bike. So we started googling harnesses for biking. And without too much work, we stumbled up on Alpine Outfitters’s Urban Trail Harness.

The regular Urban Trail harness is a custom fit harness, so you’ll need to measure your pooch pretty well (measure twice to make sure that you’re sure of the sizing). And while the thought of measuring a squirming fur-kid might seem daunting, Alpine Outfitters has a page that takes out all the guesswork of what measurements they need. Their instructions are clear and have some great pictorial diagrams to make it even easier to understand.

The thing that makes the Urban Trail Harness stand apart from others on the market are the extra D-rings that are situated on the sides of the harness. What we observed from Maggie’s other harnesses is that all the sliding around happened because the bike leash was attached to the topline of the harness. Since the bike leash is stationary, it tended to pull the harness to the side. Magnolia and I were thrilled to find a harness that already had the D-ring on the side! Having the connection point between the harness and the bike leash on the side keeps the harness from sliding around on the dog, completely eliminating the chafing issue!! Alpine Outfitters have thought of everything and made sure that they put a D-ring on the left and the right side as well as on the top so that you can connect your dog on either side of your bike (or on both sides if you have two dogs!) and then you can use the one on top when you’ve finished with your ride and want to have a “normal” harness to connect your leash to.

But if the side D-rings aren’t enough, Alpine Outfitters have tricked out their harness even more! All of their Urban Trail harnesses (both the custom fit and the adjustable versions) and their Flyball harnesses come fully padded with plush polar fleece like material. This keeps the sturdy webbing from rubbing, and generally makes the harness more comfortable. Additionally, you can add reflective tape for added safety, the harness can be personalized with your dog’s name embroidered on the webbing, you can choose from a wide range of colors for the webbing, and you can also choose to have the D-rings only on one side if you know which side of your bike you want to connect your dog to.

For growing dogs/pups or for dogs who might loose and gain weight (*cough*Magnolia*cough*), you might decide to go with the Adjustable Urban Trail harness. It has all the same great features as the regular Urban Trail Harness, but it allows more flexibility in the sizing. The mid-rib section can be completely replaced if it’s too big/small/whatever and the harness itself doesn’t require terribly precise measurements like the custom fit Urban Trail Harness. The Adjustable Urban Trail harness is what Magnolia’s been using, and it’s a thousand times better than any harness that doesn’t give the option of attachment on the side. The adjustable version retails for $42.00, while the custom fit version retails for $32.00 (if you add the reflective tape, it will increase the price on either harness by $3.00). My only criticism with the adjustable harness is that the top “T” strap seemed a bit long for Magnolia (you can see that it wrinkles up a bit in the pictures). I tried several different adjustments, but couldn’t seem to get it to lay flat. I feel sure that a custom fitted harness would solve this problem. Magnolia often has difficulties getting “out of box” items to fit her since she has such an athletic body.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed our segment on Biking with your Pooch, and Willy and all the gang would love to see some pictures or video of your pooch’s biking adventures! Please post them to our “Bad Dogs Unite!” Flickr pool!!

Note: The Flyball harnesses are available in 1″ webbing (for dogs 30 pounds and over) and 3/4″ webbing (for smaller pooches); they retail for $41.00, either size. The flyball harness is a modified Urban Trail harness with a “quick catch” handle and a topline metal D-ring for leash attachment.